Every year I like to plug National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which is a fun creative writing project for people who really like creative writing, or really like slightly crazy ideas. Normally I say a lot about it, but this year I'll leave it to the experts: http://www.nanowrimo.org

I never enter such things myself.I did enter a poetry contest years ago and actually won. I didn't win much, other than my poem was entered into a book of poetry that was being published that year and a "discount" for that very book, as well as a "reasonable price" for a plaque containing my poem as well.Really stupid to offer a "prize" of "discounts and specials" to people who live on a fixed income!

When you do the best you can it's called a try! If you don't you need to ask yourself why? Just give it a thought, And failure is worth naught. And then like an eagle you shall fly!

AldenteVonTino wrote:I did enter a poetry contest years ago and actually won. I didn't win much, other than my poem was entered into a book of poetry that was being published that year and a "discount" for that very book, as well as a "reasonable price" for a plaque containing my poem as well.

Was this the International Library of Poetry, otherwise known as Poetry.com? I got one published there, back in college, so I could see myself in print. They put a typo in my poem. I bought one copy, just to have record of the poem, but their business model is basically selling copies of poems they're helping people self-publish, and I decided they're basically a sham. I don't think they'll reject any poems (other than maybe for decency/legal standards).

AldenteVonTino wrote:I did enter a poetry contest years ago and actually won. I didn't win much, other than my poem was entered into a book of poetry that was being published that year and a "discount" for that very book, as well as a "reasonable price" for a plaque containing my poem as well.

Was this the International Library of Poetry, otherwise known as Poetry.com? I got one published there, back in college, so I could see myself in print. They put a typo in my poem. I bought one copy, just to have record of the poem, but their business model is basically selling copies of poems they're helping people self-publish, and I decided they're basically a sham. I don't think they'll reject any poems (other than maybe for decency/legal standards).

Yes, was my thinking as well after a while. Toss enough chum in and you'll get the sharks.But hey, we're in a book and that's something, right?

When you do the best you can it's called a try! If you don't you need to ask yourself why? Just give it a thought, And failure is worth naught. And then like an eagle you shall fly!

Doc Igor wrote:It's not limited by nationality. Just like the National Hockey League lets American cities have teams... 'national' doesn't mean much.

Errrrrr... You sure you're using the right example? It's a national league. In the US. So American cities would be in it. So this isn't at all an example of something showing national doesn't mean much. Anyways, it says right on the site in the history of the second year that Canadian people had participated - "We had become international!" (paraphrased). So I'm pretty sure it just has the N because people prepend it when they need another letter for an acronym. Or in this case, another two letters.

Muhandes wrote:I know it's not limited. My point was, that some US people think that the US is the entire world, and thus a "national" thing by definition applies to the whole world.It doesn't.

And I avoid such people.

And some people, such as the people silly enough to think writing a novel in a month is a good idea, are also silly enough to title it "national" just for the heck of it. It started out as something on the order of a prank or a dare, and the name has stuck. You're attributing bigotry to a man who is most definitely the complete opposite--the guy who started it just wants everyone to have fun, be inspired, and write a novel.

The web site has extensive international support. Forums for different countries and regions. Back in '02 my writing buddy/competitor lived in Belgium.

Really, I know that Americans can be pretty blind to the rest of the world in many respects, but in this instance I assure you: it's not like that.

Just bumping this because I really and truly love this project. Other than this game, and one other non-November novel draft I've written, my 3 NaNoWriMo novels stand as three of my proudest achievements. (That's three of the top five, or 60% of my top handful of achievements in my moderately creative life.) In other words, it's really good stuff. I'd be doing it again if it weren't for 30 Days of Twilight. I'm tempted to do it anyway, and damn the eyestrain and carpal tunnel! And batten down the hatches, too!

Also, there are two other fantastic reasons to participate:

1) #4, also known as "my brother", or "Lord Moribund Saturnine Dread" is part of the NaNo team. You all want to do things he does, right?

2) Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, writes some of the most excellent inspirational email blurbs, all month long.